Obama’s Gotta Go -- Niall Ferguson, The Daily Beast
Why does Paul Ryan scare the president so much? Because Obama has broken his promises, and it’s clear that the GOP ticket’s path to prosperity is our only hope.
I was a good loser four years ago. “In the grand scheme of history,” I wrote the day after Barack Obama’s election as president, “four decades is not an especially long time. Yet in that brief period America has gone from the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. to the apotheosis of Barack Obama. You would not be human if you failed to acknowledge this as a cause for great rejoicing.”
Despite having been—full disclosure—an adviser to John McCain, I acknowledged his opponent’s remarkable qualities: his soaring oratory, his cool, hard-to-ruffle temperament, and his near faultless campaign organization.
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My Comment: Tim Stanley at The Telegraph provides a good rebuttal to Niall Ferguson`s commentary (that link is here). As to what is my take .... history is my thing, and Niall Ferguson is a historian that I admire tremendously. But in this commentary he fails to deliver a short and precise analysis on why President Obama does not deserve a second term .... he elaborates too much, losing the message with his explanations. The facts are already there .... continued high unemployment, high deficits, low economic growth, and the prospect of even greater taxes when Obama-care is implemented .... all that Niall Ferguson needs to do is list them and remind the readers of what President Obama promised in 2008 .... and then let the numbers do the talking.
5 comments:
Nothing should be considered in isolation.
What is the alternative and is it better or worse?
No one who reads about Lincoln, Washington, and other fine Presidents can avoid wishing we had one of them to be running. But also no one who has experienced what many call "the worst strategic mistake in history," can deny that there have been, and could be worse alternatives than Obama. Neill Ferguson knows this. You know this as well. It is nothing less than both of your responsibilities to report it.
I had not thought this site a political one...when a president deals with specific military matters, then a critique might be called for. But as an election rant, ths strikes me as out of place. What assurance do we have thus far that Romney has aplan to "fix" things? Can you tell us what his plans call for?
Interesting that this blog rarely reports on the issues surrounding Mitt Romney, his tax issues and the silence around that fact and as well as the many gaffes and total trip-ups he has made.
Sure, there has been broken promises, no president can keep all his promises, and some he tried to fight for. I think one of the issues with Obama is that he underestimated Congress and the fight that they would give him over a wide range of issues.
And it is quite amusing to look at the alternative - Mitt Romney, whose own tax plan is an enigma to all.
One thing I find amusing with Americans, which is not to be taken as an insult, is that no matter who is sitting in the chair in the Oval Office, they will never be happy with the occupant of that chair...
They want a president that can do miracles, but when you have a tit-for-tat Congress that attacks the ideology of the other guy simply because he may be a democrat/republican, and fights just for the sake of fighting, that becomes the heart of the problem.
Looking at the alternative, I'm amazed that some people can't see how dangerous Mitt Romney really is as a President. The guy is a snake.
When Ted Kennedy (a favourite politician of mine, RIP) compared Obama to JFK, I thought to myself that was rather an unfair and odd comparision to make, but that speaks about the hype that Obama had, and he had a lot of hype, and added with the zillion of promises that he made (a mistake) that no way could he possibly keep, it added to what you see now. Hype has cost him a lot, but I think he has made up for it in other ways.
In the end, it is a simple choice of Mitt Romney or Obama.
The Snake or the Broken Dream...
"As to what is my take .... history is my thing, and Niall Ferguson is a historian that I admire tremendously."
History's your thing, eh? And you cite Tina Brown AND Niall Ferguson? Too funny. Thanks for the laugh.
Thanks to everyone for your comments. I always smile that even though I receive tens of thousands of visitors to this blog every month, the only comments that I can ever get is when I post a political piece or two. I guess I just like to stir the pot.
There are two historians that I like .... Niall Ferguson and Victor Davis Hanson .... and I post them because they almost always run contrary to what is conventional wisdom. And I like unconventional thinking. Kudos to Newsweek for posting this story.
Regular readers of this blog know that I am not an American (formerly Russian and now a proud Canadian) .... and I post U.S. political stories from an outsider point of view who has "no skin in the game". Who sits in the White House will not impact my life .... but when I see trends or politics that I know will not be good, I will post my comments and observations.
The U.S. of today reminds me of what I saw and personally experienced in eastern Europe in the 1980s, and what I saw developing in Spain/Greece/Italy in the past 5-10 years. Government inertia, fiscal mismanagement, corruption, entitlement, the purposeful destruction of the entrepreneurial spirit and mindset.
The present political leaders in the U.S. (both Republican and democrat) are not up to the job .... they are sadly far from it. They propose the same solutions and remedies of more government, more entitlement, and more involvement in our lives .... just in different degrees. And the electorate has always voted for it. But the results have always been disappointing .... and this should not surprise anyone.
All that I am doing is warning of the storm clouds that I am seeing on the horizon. And as I told my brother yesterday .... he resides in San Francisco and is an ardent Obama supporter .... he has to be aware of what is happening and to position himself financially so that when the "crisis" hits .... and trust me on this it will hit .... he can not only survive the storm but to prosper from it.
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